Communism -- Soviet Union; Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
I returned to the Soviet palace in Tsarskoye in the Regimental Staff
automobile. Still the crowds of workers, soldiers and sailors pouring
in and out, still the choking press of trucks, armoured cars, cannon
before the door, and the shouting, the laughter of unwonted victory.
Half a dozen Red Guards forced their way through, a priest in the
middle. This was Father Ivan, they said, who had blessed the Cossacks
when they entered the town. I heard afterward that he was shot…. (See
App. IX, Sect. 4)
Dybenko was just coming out, giving rapid orders right and left. In his
hand he carried the big revolver. An automobile stood with racing
engine at the kerb. Alone, he climbed in the rear seat, and was off-off
to Gatchina, to conquer Kerensky.
Toward nightfall he arrived at the outskirts of the town, and went on
afoot. What Dybenko told the Cossacks nobody knows, but the fact is
that General Krasnov and his staff and several thousand Cossacks
surrendered, and advised Kerensky to do the same. (See App. IX, Sect.
5)
As for Kerensky—I reprint here the deposition made by General Krasnov
on the morning of November 14th:
“Gatchina, November 14, 1917. To-day, about three o’clock (A. M.), I
was summoned by the Supreme Commander (Kerensky). He was very agitated,
and very nervous.
“‘General,’ he said to me, ‘you have betrayed me. Your Cossacks declare
categorically that they will arrest me and deliver me to the sailors.’
“‘Yes,’ I answered, ‘there is talk of it, and I know that you have no
sympathy anywhere.’
“‘But the officers say the same thing.’
“‘Yes, most of all it is the officers who are discontented with you.’
“‘What shall I do? I ought to commit suicide!’
“‘If you are an honorable man, you will go immediately to Petrograd
with a white flag, you will present yourself to the Military
Revolutionary Committee, and enter into negotiations as Chief of the
Provisional Government.’
“‘All right. I will do that, General.’
“‘I will give you a guard and ask that a sailor go with you.’
“‘No, no, not a sailor. Do you know whether it is true that Dybenko is
here?’
“‘I don’t know who Dybenko is.’
“‘He is my enemy.
“‘There is nothing to do. If you play for high stakes you must know how
to take a chance.’
“‘Yes. I’ll leave to-night!’
“‘Why? That would be a flight. Leave calmly and openly, so that every
one can see that you are not running away.’
“‘Very well. But you must give me a guard on which I can count.’
“‘Good.’
“I went out and called the Cossack Russkov, of the Tenth Regiment of
the Don, and ordered him to pick out ten Cossacks to accompany the
Supreme Commander. Half an hour later the Cossacks came to tell me that
Kerensky was not in his quarters, that he had run away.
“I gave the alarm and ordered that he be searched for, supposing that
he could not have left Gatchina, but he could not be found….”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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